MLB Follows NFL In Restricting How Reporters Can Report On Games Online

from the who-puts-up-with-this-stuff? dept

Brian writes in to let us know that Major League Baseball seems to be following the NFL's rules on how reporters are allowed to report on games. In the MLB's case, reporters can only post short video clips, can't post more than 7 photos per game and all non-text content must be removed after 72 hours. It's fairly amazing that news organizations agree to put up with these restrictions. The fact that news organizations caved into the NFL is what has allowed MLB to go down a similar path. Again, MLB has every right to set the terms by which it gives out press passes, but news organizations should push back against these policies, potentially buying tickets themselves, rather than getting team-approved press passes. It's also not at all clear why a news report shouldn't be allowed to post as many photos as they want on their site, or why they shouldn't be able to leave them online for more than a few days.

Reader Comments

joy

That day is coming! Someday I will be able to copyright my face, walk around in public, and sue everyone who looks at me! Oh, and I can Google my name and sue anyone who mentions me or something I have done. I'm going to sue my (future) children someday when they attempt to tell THEIR children the same bedtime stories I used to tell.

Right Idea

I don't think the media should push back against these asinine restrictions. Instead, they should simply refuse to cover the sport. The owners will quickly realize obscurity is far worse than a few pictures on a news blog.

Another plan

Instead of the press not buying their own tickets, I think it would be great to simply provide ZERO coverage for a few games. Maybe then the MLB and NFL would get the point that the press is a good thing.

Why do they do this...

I'm not American and am not a fan of baseball or American Football, so obviously I don't follow after match reports etc... but why is it in the interests of the NFL or MLB to block images/clips of games appearing on other sites?

I started my own personal sports media blackout...

...several years ago.

I woke one day and realized that it was all very un-entertaining entertainment overloaded with advertising and lowest common denominator puffery, and there were much, much more interesting things to do with my leisure time.

Now if I could just come up with a way to block them completely out of all my news spaces, I'd be uber happy.

Agree with post #2

I say we give in the NFL, MLB, and any other sports organization that wants to restrict reporting.

Ten years from now they'll be whining that no-one cares about the sport because no reporters are reporting on it anymore.

Maybe these organizations should read Tech Dirt's articles about "free": maybe if reporters posted free pictures of the games, the teams would get more publicity, and more people would *buy* tickets and support the sport.
Nah, that'll never work.

I'm thinking about putting a patent on my favorite seat on the Max Light Rail here in Portland Oregon. I am sick and tired of having to sit somewhere else after a hard day's work just because some nimrod saw an empty seat.

Re: Re: Wake up n smell the coffe

"Baseball executives cited a number of factors for the rise in attendance, including the addition of the wild card and interleague play, construction of new ballparks and increased competitive balance."

MLB has higher attendance this year because they increased the total number of games played ?

Don't watch MLB

I quit watching MLB baseball years ago. They have the most utterly absurd views on IP in all of America (they make the NFL, RIAA, MPAA and Microsoft seem rational by comparison). Steroids are a huge problem and the owners turned a blind eye to it. There are huge wealth discrepancies between teams and MLB leadership has no desire to change it (something that is not a problem in NFL, NHL and NBA). I suggest you all do the same. Don't watch their games.

RE: the inquiry from our foreign anonymous coward

MLB and the NFL are both hoping that they will draw more surfers to their own sites in an effort to squeeze every last possible dime out of the value of their product. It is a fascinating 21st-century answer to vertical monopolies.